Protected's recent activity
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Comment on Cameras/software for watching roofs in ~tech
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Comment on The best game animation of 2024 in ~games
Protected Link ParentI'd hardly call Black Myth Wukong obscure! I'm not much of an expert in animation. If we're talking AAA, I did enjoy how FF7 Rebirth brought the characters to life. Indie-wise, I 100% agree...I'd hardly call Black Myth Wukong obscure!
I'm not much of an expert in animation. If we're talking AAA, I did enjoy how FF7 Rebirth brought the characters to life. Indie-wise, I 100% agree regarding Thank Goodness You're Here, which I didn't play but saw others play multiple times.
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Comment on The best game animation of 2024 in ~games
Protected LinkAlways love these. A bunch of the games I played and commented on throughout the year were showcased here (even if just in passing), which in some cases is quite impressive considering how...Always love these. A bunch of the games I played and commented on throughout the year were showcased here (even if just in passing), which in some cases is quite impressive considering how unreviewed/obscure they are. And there are always a couple of interesting looking ones I was unaware of.
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Comment on Introductions | March 2025 in ~talk
Protected Link ParentDarmok and Jalad at Tanagra...You must ask the right questions.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra...
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Comment on Introductions | March 2025 in ~talk
Protected Link ParentWell, I'd say plenty of people care about it, proportionally. It's just that a lot of people don't care about anything, as in, they don't spare a thought for how their own decisions can have a...I don’t understand why people are so indifferent about this topic
Well, I'd say plenty of people care about it, proportionally. It's just that a lot of people don't care about anything, as in, they don't spare a thought for how their own decisions can have a negative impact in the world (and themselves, even).
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Comment on Are you tech-savvy enough? in ~tech
Protected LinkGaminger? Small world. Unfortunately I am tech-savvy enough. I'm not judging anyone who wants things that just work for them, but most of the time what I am personally trying to accomplish is the...Gaminger? Small world.
Unfortunately I am tech-savvy enough. I'm not judging anyone who wants things that just work for them, but most of the time what I am personally trying to accomplish is the creation of new solutions for others, which is directly tied to my having a deep understanding of how things work. It can be quite frustrating and time consuming, though.
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Comment on The Donald Trump US administration accidentally texted me its war plans (gifted link) in ~society
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Comment on The Donald Trump US administration accidentally texted me its war plans (gifted link) in ~society
Protected LinkFor some reason, I don't seem to have access to this article without an account even when using the supposedly gifted link; is that normal?For some reason, I don't seem to have access to this article without an account even when using the supposedly gifted link; is that normal?
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Protected LinkI finally finished AI: The Somnium Files last week so if anyone wants to discuss something spoilerish I can do that now. Naiad is finally out as of December! This chill top-down 2D game spent...I finally finished AI: The Somnium Files last week so if anyone wants to discuss something spoilerish I can do that now.
Naiad is finally out as of December! This chill top-down 2D game spent years in my list nearly making it to the top (oldest), and I spent 13 hours to 100% it this week. It proudly proclaims it's the work of a single developer (save for outsourced localization and such) and I have to say it's even better than I expected! I bought it during the sale but it's worth full price.
As the rain kisses the rock in a spring high up in the forest, the titular Naiad is born. The cloud proclaims her to be the Guardian Of This River. During the course of the game, you will control Naiad (who is a silent protagonist) in her long journey downstream.
At first, the scale of the game seems small. Guided by your friendly cloud, you learn various ways to swim and dive. Your many duties include taking care of various plants and animals who live by or in the river. Armed with your song, you coax birds to their nests, guide ducklings to mama duck, make plants grow and remove obstacles, plus many other things. Larger animals reward you for helping them with abilities that make you stronger and faster, but there's a tradeoff. If you're too fast and leave them behind, ducklings will wander off. The fish that follow you downstream won't be able to keep up. The frogs will give up and hop out of the water. Naiad is a game of patience and relaxation, in which you're expected to enjoy your time putting things in their place, and thoroughly exploring your surroundings. Some objectives actually require waiting a little bit for something to show up or someone to move.
Soon you learn that there's more to the river than meets the eye. There are secret passages hiding in river bends or behind rocks. In addition to cataloguing all the animals, you can find various songs, poems, floral essences and, if you're thorough enough, other things that you need to unlock the game's true ending. As you progress downstream, you also encounter more and more humans, who live by and interact with the river and with each other in various different ways. Eventually, human presence changes the river itself, and not in a good way. Naiad grows and ages as she travels, and the river grows and ages with her. Naiad's adventure is almost a hero's journey, with an awesome ending that to me is reminiscent of
Naiad true ending spoiler
Jonathan Livingston Seagull.The developer's art and music are both simple but lovingly crafted, assembled into beautiful set pieces, and highly effective. Vibrant colors bring the river to life, and their later absence convey that it's dying. My one qualm is with the singing system, which is core to the game. It makes use of what I'll always think of as the "Aquaria singing wheel" (though I've since seen it in other games), or in other words, you can use the analog stick to output eight musical notes, and have to output various notes in a sequence to correctly sing a song. If you fail you have to start over - and it can be difficult to get it right even if your analog stick doesn't have any kind of drift, which we all know often ends up happening to everyone's analog sticks. I also thought the synthesizer notes they used for Naiad's singing voice were underwhelming, compared to the rest of the game.
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Comment on Thor Bjørklund's ostehøvel, a popular cheese slicer which developed into an important Norwegian export, celebrates 100 this year in ~engineering
Protected Link ParentThe standard sliced cheese in Portugal is basically Edam (but local variants), so my whole life I've (my parents included) always had these slicers at home. You can easily buy a crappy one at the...The standard sliced cheese in Portugal is basically Edam (but local variants), so my whole life I've (my parents included) always had these slicers at home. You can easily buy a crappy one at the supermarket.
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Comment on Perhaps I should write worse? in ~talk
Protected LinkFrom another Portuguese speaker: I like the way you write in a context like Tildes. I don't find it problematic at all. It seems counter-intuitive, but if you were writing a novel, and you wanted...From another Portuguese speaker: I like the way you write in a context like Tildes. I don't find it problematic at all.
It seems counter-intuitive, but if you were writing a novel, and you wanted it to have broad appeal, I'd say absolutely do simplify your writing. When having a productive online discussion, even though the context is less formal, I actually prefer a more diverse vocabulary, for clarity.
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Comment on EU slams the door on US in colossal defense plan in ~society
Protected Link ParentI understand your perspective now. It's indeed unfortunate that the UK aren't currently politically positioned (as EU members) to push back against France on this matter. To be fair, when it comes...I understand your perspective now. It's indeed unfortunate that the UK aren't currently politically positioned (as EU members) to push back against France on this matter.
To be fair, when it comes to most financial services, I think there just aren't suitable european non-UK alternatives at this time, so don't be too disheartened.
One thing I'm having a lot of trouble finding an alternative for is the absolute worst - Paypal. I don't want to fund the Thiel coven, but I need something I can use to accept recurring payments that can come from a credit or debit card in "any" country (with sane exceptions), and also to send such payments, also internationally. And ideally something not more expensive than Paypal (which is already pretty expensive in 2025). Know of anything?
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Comment on EU slams the door on US in colossal defense plan in ~society
Protected Link ParentI'm not sure how this "jeopardizes the safety of the whole European continent" honestly. Investing in our own defense industry doesn't mean the UK's goes away, or that whatever cooperation already...I'm not sure how this "jeopardizes the safety of the whole European continent" honestly. Investing in our own defense industry doesn't mean the UK's goes away, or that whatever cooperation already exists will disappear. By that token, brexit jeopardized the safety of the continent to a much greater degree.
Personally, I don't see the UK in any way as an enemy, nor do I think any EU country sees the UK as an enemy. I've been looking into moving my various concerns that currently funnel money into the US, out of the US, since it feels immoral to contribute to the american economy (and especially big tech) at this point. Currently I think I will be mostly relying on UK companies. But when I have a choice, I want to support the EU, which is where I actually am!
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Comment on Important 2025 Plex updates in ~tv
Protected LinkI hesitate to bring it up because (disclaimer, disclaimer) I am not an unbiased party but if you want something inbetween Plex and Jellyfin, you can also consider Jellyfin's original parent...I hesitate to bring it up because (disclaimer, disclaimer) I am not an unbiased party but if you want something inbetween Plex and Jellyfin, you can also consider Jellyfin's original parent project, Emby.
It's closed source and has an optional paid subscription offering (Premiere) that without going into detail offers some features similar to those of Plex. You can self host and remote stream for free though (I keep mine behind Apache). It has a pretty good, diverse plugin ecossystem.
As far as I'm aware, Emby's strengths include UI polish and performance, broad compatibility with a large number of native clients available for all kinds of platforms and TVs. I've also personally had an easier experience installing it. On a feature by feature basis, however, I'm not aware of how it compares with Plex or Jellyfin.
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Comment on What's the oldest tech you use, and why do you still use it? in ~tech
Protected LinkStill using the same image editor I used 20 years ago, Photoimpact, which is intuitive and user friendly and was bought out and killed by Corel almost that long ago. Photoshop's garbage paradigm...Still using the same image editor I used 20 years ago, Photoimpact, which is intuitive and user friendly and was bought out and killed by Corel almost that long ago. Photoshop's garbage paradigm won out but this program has much faster and intuitive UX, and let's not even talk about the gimp, where nothing ever works the way you'd expect and you have to stop every 20 seconds to look something up.
Unfortunately it uses dated windows APIs, it's missing modern algorithms, it has unfixed glitches, and it's incapable of using most of my RAM or multiple CPU cores, so it can get very slow on large, complicated projects. Still, if there's an image editor that does typesetting as well as this one and doesn't require paying for a subscription, I'd like to know.
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Comment on Jet Lag: Schengen Showdown | Trailer in ~hobbies
Protected Link ParentYeah, some very funny moments! Ep. 2 spoilers It's too bad we didn't get to see the Tom/Sam team do much today. Adam and Ben really deserved that win, they worked hard for it! "A huge strategy in...Yeah, some very funny moments!
Ep. 2 spoilers
It's too bad we didn't get to see the Tom/Sam team do much today.
Adam and Ben really deserved that win, they worked hard for it!
"A huge strategy in this game should be to avoid Germany entirely..." This is getting brutal. On the one hand it's really shameful for the country of Germany. But at the same time, I'm getting progressively more worried they'll try to visit Portugal one day and realize, along with every viewer, how much worse it can be.
Several more good moments, the guy on the bike waving, the person who stopped on the doorway, etc.
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Comment on Jet Lag: Schengen Showdown | Trailer in ~hobbies
Protected Link ParentReply Well, there are two different ways competing for the same country can be wasteful: That the challenge will waste a lot of time, or that the other team will complete the challenge before you...Reply
Well, there are two different ways competing for the same country can be wasteful: That the challenge will waste a lot of time, or that the other team will complete the challenge before you can. They didn't know what the challenge was; if it was something doable in 5 minutes then being two and a half minutes late would be enough for the other team to have a massive advantage.
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Comment on What are your personal reading "rules?" in ~books
Protected LinkI mostly have lists in my head, nothing too formal. My books are mostly on shelves but I also have some ebooks; better authors get the dead tree treament while for experimental stuff or guilty...I mostly have lists in my head, nothing too formal. My books are mostly on shelves but I also have some ebooks; better authors get the dead tree treament while for experimental stuff or guilty pleasure garbage ebook is enough.
I mainly read in bed before sleeping (or not). I don't re-read much because I always have new books that I want to read.
I almost never stop a book before it's over. Rarely, I'll drop a series. I'm usually irritated by the brutal shattering of my suspension of disbelief or general dishonesty on the part of the author, and this includes contrived cliffhanger scenes that shit all over previous character development (when these are used they are conveniently placed at the end of the book, allowing me to drop the series immediately). I also dislike sustained misery porn and child abuse in my stories. Finally, I dislike stories in which I hate every single character and really can't justify wasting any more of my time on them!
I choose the next book(s) informally and without learning too much about them. It could be recommendations I saw online (even here!) or from friends; books from authors I already like or authors recommended by those authors; even "random" stuff I saw on amazon. I will check reviews sometimes and they can affect my decision. I like variety so I try to alternate; I almost never want to read two books by the same author back to back. I also alternate heavier stuff vs YA, science fiction vs fantasy, novels vs short stories, etc.
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Comment on Jet Lag: Schengen Showdown | Trailer in ~hobbies
Protected Link ParentI think you have it right. Based on past seasons, I imagine the first team to complete the challenge would lock the country.I think you have it right. Based on past seasons, I imagine the first team to complete the challenge would lock the country.
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Comment on Puerto Rico is dying in ~society
Protected LinkNowadays, my disdain for the US grows ever so steadily.Nowadays, my disdain for the US grows ever so steadily.
After asking here on tildes earlier this year, I ended up going with reolink as pretty much the only option I could acquire here that didn't seem prehistoric in terms of usability and business practices, didn't seem like a front for the chinese government (though who knows?) and had plenty of models so I could find the type of camera I needed. Buying from them in Europe was easy, their website is good and their software is easy to use. Hikvision was available through shady local outfits only, Armcrest didn't sell to Europe, and Annke didn't get back to me on time.
I can't answer all of your questions but here are a few possibly helpful facts (or at least that seem relevant to your prompt) about my reolink camera: